No electoral law reform in Bavaria: Greens scent Söder's CSU secret plan
Created: 06/30/2022, 16:45
By: Thomas Eldersch
Katharina Schulze from the Greens cannot become Prime Minister in Bavaria next year.
Among other things, the CSU under Markus Söder prevented this.
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
For the time being, the Bavarian electoral law will remain as it is.
Age limits remain.
This particularly annoys the opposition around Green leader Schulze.
Munich – From the age of 16, are you mentally ready to vote?
Are you under the age of 40 eligible to be prime minister of a country?
If the conservative parties in the Bavarian state parliament have their way, the answer is no in both cases.
The Bavarian electoral law will remain as it is for the time being.
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Voting rights in Bavaria: Greens accuse the CSU of wanting to prevent their candidate
On Thursday, the representatives of the CSU, the Free Voters and the AfD voted against lowering the voting age to 16 years.
Critics claim that minors may not be able to see the consequences of their political decisions.
Other federal states probably see it differently than Bavaria.
In Brandenburg, Hamburg, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein, 16 to 18-year-olds are already allowed to take part in state elections.
There and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, you can vote in local elections from the age of 16.
The minimum age for the office of prime minister of 40 years was not touched either.
"Good politics is not a question of age," said Green MP Johannes Becher.
Arbitrarily determined age discrimination should finally be abolished.
"Of course, people under the age of 40 can lead a government." This can be seen abroad, where French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, was elected at the age of 39, and Sebastian Kurz in Austria at the age of 31.
Becher, in particular, accused the CSU, headed by Markus Söder, of only wanting to use the age limit to prevent the election of Green party leader Katharina Schulze (37).
Baden-Württemberg recently decided to reform the electoral law (video)
Voting rights in Bavaria: Criticism from the opposition
The SPD and the FDP also vehemently rejected the argument that minors lack the intellectual maturity.
One could very well trust the young people with this responsibility, said Arif Tasdelen (SPD).
He accused the CSU of only rejecting the application because they want to propose a reduction “soon” themselves.
The demand for voting rights from the age of 16 is not new.
In the past, corresponding applications have failed several times due to a lack of approval by the conservative parliamentary groups.
(phone with dpa)
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